webmin_sysadmin_util_vs_linuxconf

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Subject: Webmin system administration utility
From: kumar1@home.com (Prasanth A. Kumar)
Date: 06 Jun 2000 18:19:00 -0700



I don't know if anyone has ever tried Webmin but I can say it is much
more user friendly and less intrusive than Linuxconf. I think Redhat
should seriously look at replacing Linuxconf with Webmin. I guess the
most serious limitation to Webmin is that it runs over a browser, which
can be a problem in text mode. But I think with a bit of tweaking of
the generated pages, maybe it could run on Lynx?

===

Subject: Re: Webmin system administration utility
From: teg@redhat.com (Trond Eivind=?iso-8859-1?q?_Glomsr=F8d?=)
Date: 06 Jun 2000 22:10:06 -0400


kumar1@home.com (Prasanth A. Kumar) writes:

> I don't know if anyone has ever tried Webmin but I can say it is much
> more user friendly and less intrusive than Linuxconf. I think Redhat
> should seriously look at replacing Linuxconf with Webmin.

We have.

> I guess the most serious limitation to Webmin is that it runs over a
> browser, which can be a problem in text mode.

One of them. 

===

Subject: Re: Webmin system administration utility
From: Alvin Starr <alvin@iplink.net>
Date:   Tue, 6 Jun 2000 23:24:43 -0400 (EDT)


On Wed, 7 Jun 2000, Greg Wright wrote:

> On 6/06/00 at 18:19 kumar1@home.com wrote:
> 
> >I don't know if anyone has ever tried Webmin but I can say it is much
> >more user friendly and less intrusive than Linuxconf. I think Redhat
> >should seriously look at replacing Linuxconf with Webmin. I guess the
> >most serious limitation to Webmin is that it runs over a browser, which
> >can be a problem in text mode. But I think with a bit of tweaking of
> >the generated pages, maybe it could run on Lynx?
> >
> Hi
> 
> Webmin is good, much better at this point than Linuxconf (in as far as
> problems administrating) , but I cannot see RH taking a rivals system and
> using it, its not clear to me what the lic will be also once Caldera starts
> steering the boat (if they ever do take over the coding).

I second the motion for Webmin. I have started removing linuxconf from all
my RH systems or at least disabling them. It is a real pain when your
system will not reboot just because somebody ran linuxconf. Road trips to
the computer room at odd hours make you really gun-shy.

===

Subject: Re: Webmin system administration utility
From: Levente Farkas <lfarkas@mindmaker.hu>
Date: Wed,  7 Jun 2000 05:32:22 +0200 (CEST)


Quoting "Prasanth A. Kumar" <kumar1@home.com>:

> 
> I don't know if anyone has ever tried Webmin but I can say it is much
> more user friendly and less intrusive than Linuxconf. I think Redhat
> should seriously look at replacing Linuxconf with Webmin. I guess the
> most serious limitation to Webmin is that it runs over a browser, which
> can be a problem in text mode. But I think with a bit of tweaking of
> the generated pages, maybe it could run on Lynx?

I'm the second on it (actualy I hate linuxconf), but it have to look
thru, since there is 'strange' stuff in it (like if you restart apache
from it, it change the REMOTE_USER on _all_ following page(!!!) to the 
webmin login name).

===

Subject: Re: Webmin system administration utility
From: R P Herrold <herrold@owlriver.com>
Date: Tue, 6 Jun 2000 23:52:26 -0400 (EDT)


On Tue, 6 Jun 2000, Alvin Starr wrote:

> On Wed, 7 Jun 2000, Greg Wright wrote:
> 
> I second the motion for Webmin. I have started removing linuxconf from all
> my RH systems or at least disabling them. It is a real pain when your
> system will not reboot just because somebody ran linuxconf. Road trips to
> the computer room at odd hours make you really gun-shy.

I have to concur on the need to disable linuxconf -- it
silently blew away 160 domain records (maintained using
another tool) when a junior sysadmin who was just trying to
install a new network card used it. <frown> Perhaps linuxconf
would be OK with a more limited scope of change mechanism, or
recognizing that it does not understand what it is
encountering and issuing better advisories ...

But so there is no misunderstanding, Webmin MUST be disabled
when not in use, and MUST be configured to 'Not talk with
strangers' -- Indeed, perhaps it should issue alerts into
/var/log/messages, and to root [assuning that all root mail
is directed off-host in /etc/aliases to a regular
sysadmin's userid, as is our practice.]  To "YELL when
approached by strangers," so to speak.

===

Subject: Re: Webmin system administration utility
From: kumar1@home.com (Prasanth A. Kumar)
Date: 06 Jun 2000 21:02:29 -0700


"Greg Wright" <greg@ausit.com> writes:
<snip>
> Webmin is good, much better at this point than Linuxconf (in as far as
> problems administrating) , but I cannot see RH taking a rivals system and
> using it, its not clear to me what the lic will be also once Caldera starts
> steering the boat (if they ever do take over the coding).
> 
> Regards
> 
> Greg Wright
<snip>

I seriously doubt that would be a consideration given that Webmin is
opensource (BSD license) and contributed to by many work on a diverse
variety of operating systems. It is no worse than other distributions
basing themselves on RPMS! Also, Mandrake is using it in their
upcoming release.

However I'm not too concerned if Redhat has reservations to including
it since I can uninstall Linuxconf and install Webmin in what 10 seconds...

===

Subject: Re: Webmin system administration utility
From: Karsten Petersen <karsten.petersen@informatik.tu-chemnitz.de>
Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2000 11:23:21 +0200 (CEST)


On Tue, 6 Jun 2000, Alvin Starr wrote:
> I have started removing linuxconf from all my RH systems or at least
> disabling them. It is a real pain when your system will not reboot
> just because somebody ran linuxconf. Road trips to the computer room
> at odd hours make you really gun-shy.

linuxconf is like SuSE's yast: perhaps usable for newbies but a
steady source of problems for the pros ...

=> rpm -e linuxconf kudzu 
on all our several hundert machines. (cfengine rulez ;)

===

Subject: Re: Webmin system administration utility
From: Adrian Likins <alikins@redhat.com>
Date: Wed, 7 Jun 2000 09:41:54 -0400


On Tue, Jun 06, 2000 at 10:10:06PM -0400, Trond Eivind Glomsr

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